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Is this really a concern? I mean come on people, your kids see more suggestive stuff at the Teen Awards. But sure, lets have the city/state shell out more money for condom wrappers that don't offend the delicate sensibilities of a bunch of busy bodies.

The whole idea of even giving out condoms promotes sexual activity is ridiculous. Like a 14 year old boy and 14 year old girl are sitting around wondering what they should do.....then they see the condom that the boy got in school and decide "hey, we should try that sex thing". It's foolish thinking, especially today when you can turn on any tv show and see sexually suggestive images.

No nerd will ever have sex. It's guaranteed. I didn't have sex in high school or college because I was too busy with Warhammer 40k, D&D, computer games, and projects that involved hacking computer parts together.

because kids these days are so oppressed, and condoms are wicked expensive and difficult to get. Sarcasm off.

The main reason we have exceptionally high rates of out of wedlock, living in poverty, deprived children is we have enabled, even encouraged, having kids among people who are not capable of handling having children, especially financially. We give free and heavily subsidized goodies to 'moms', shower them with attention, tell them they don't need a 'man' around, in fact the government will give you even more free stuff if you aren't married and in a stable relationship. I know for a fact there are social workers who encourage women with kids and who are pregnant to claim their BF, father of the child,husband, abuses them, so they can receive more free benefits.

When the poverty and out of wedlock rate is as massive as it is in some communities, even higher than it was before our so-called war on poverty, even though huge sums of $ have been spent and are spent, the status quo and system we've had in place for a half century is broken. Condoms is a goofy distraction from the real issues no one wants to discuss.

... then decorating the packages with cute and colorful images is a good thing. The notion that someone would object to a suggestive message on a condom wrapper seems absurd; what do they think they're for!

Putting them in plain "medicinal" wrappers makes them uncool by comparison, and some children might feel more embarrassed or reluctant to use them. I don't think any of the messages are that inappropriate; some actually have a clever use of pictoral double entendre. You really need to see them to decide for yourself; here's the image Adam linked to above:from stephanie (momsmt) on Twitter

For condoms and safer sex practices to work they have to be used without fail every single time, with never a usage error, mechanical or manufacturing failure. Do you think arbitrary use of condoms and safer sex practices work better than not using them? Make a list of all dead and sick friends. Compare the Strategy: BEFORE sex get tested TOGETHER for A VARIETY OF STDs then make an INFORMED decision. google "tested together".

I don't have the exact numbers, but some of my
friends have died from AIDS. I suspect that some
of them did not use condoms all the time. I suspect
that some of those who used condoms experienced
failures of use/manufacture. They are still dead.

On the other hand, if they had gotten tested and
made a choice to not have sex with infected
individuals, it is reasonable to say that most of
them would not be dead. Just as one can say
that if they had all used perfect condoms, every
time they had sex, without fail, some of them
would not be dead.

Well, one could say, if you had sex with a condom,
and the condom failed during sex, then, yes, the
FAILED condom could be said to have caused a
case of AIDS. But not every failed condom is the
cause of a case of AIDS. One could take that point
of view. But not me.

For condoms and safer sex practices to work they have to be used without fail every single time, with never a usage error, mechanical or manufacturing failure. Do you think arbitrary use of condoms and safer sex practices work better than not using them? Make a list of all dead and sick friends. Compare the Strategy: BEFORE sex get tested TOGETHER for A VARIETY OF STDs then make an INFORMED decision. google "tested together".

You mean sex is not such a compelling force that people
end up having sex, then regret having done so when they
later discover they caught something?

Damn! And all this time it was me extrapolating from my
own personal experience. And all the people who told me
the exact same story, or very similar, were only making
it up, or saying that to make me feel better.

What you propose is not workable and makes sense only for couples - and grownup ones with health insurance at that.

That is not true. Any individual can go to a public
health clinic and get tested. But so can couples. And
in most cases it won't cost you anything.

Getting tested is only accurate after a window period, so you also have to advocate that you not have sex with someone until a month after they last had sex or shared needles with someone else. Just saying "get tested" isn't helpful.

Also, in our state, there are a total of about 28,000 people living with HIV in MA according to the state in 2011 (including undiagnosed cases). That is 0.4% of the population. The failure rate of a condom (including human error) is around 15%. Without human error, it's only 2%.

That means the probability that you would both have sex with someone who is HIV+ and have a condom failure is 0.004 * 0.15 = 0.0006 or .06% or 1 in 1667. That is the equivalence of having sex with a different partner every day for nearly 5 years before you finally got AIDS. You would be better off just advocating that people not have sex to be 100% certain, especially since telling your potential love interest that you want to get tested with them will have that effect for all but the most romantically (yet not having sex) involved couples.

These numbers also don't account for the predominance of transmission in MA (just over 50%) still being male-male gay sex and shared needle drug use. Or age...since we are speaking about teenagers getting condoms here. All of these facts would even further reduce the likelihood of getting AIDS for a random couple giving it from one to another without first getting tested. In fact, we are starting to talk about probabilities that are in the same ballpark as the failure rate of the test.

Finally, only about 200 people die each year in MA from AIDS. The number is way down from where it used to be. The likelihood that any of our lists (assuming we are under the age of 45) would even have more than 10 names or be growing is really low unless we hung out in the right circles of friends that are at higher risk than the average population.

You would also do more of a service to tell people to keep a list of friends killed in motor vehicle accidents and tell them not to get behind the wheel until they always blew into a breathalyzer or took a defensive driving course.

Getting tested is only accurate after a window period, so you also have to advocate that you not have sex with someone until a month after they last had sex or shared needles with someone else. Just saying "get tested" isn't helpful.

Getting tested is helpful. On the other hand, just saying
may result in someone getting tested.

Also, in our state, there are a total of about 28,000 people living with HIV in MA according to the state in 2011 (including undiagnosed cases). That is 0.4% of the population. The failure rate of a condom (including human error) is around 15%. Without human error, it's only 2%.

Saying what the failure rate is, isn't helpful. I suspect
mathematics doesn't enter into most people's calculations
regarding having sex.

That means the probability that you would both have sex with someone who is HIV+ and have a condom failure is 0.004 * 0.15 = 0.0006 or .06% or 1 in 1667. That is the equivalence of having sex with a different partner every day for nearly 5 years before you finally got AIDS. You would be better off just advocating that people not have sex to be 100% certain,

That's one approach. Unfortunately nature wants its way.

especially since telling your potential love interest that you want to get tested with them will have that effect for all but the most romantically (yet not having sex) involved couples.

While you were sleeping the rate of couples getting
tested before having sex has increased considerably.

These numbers also don't account for the predominance of transmission in MA (just over 50%) still being male-male gay sex and shared needle drug use. Or age...since we are speaking about teenagers getting condoms here. All of these facts would even further reduce the likelihood of getting AIDS

Somehow I'm skeptical that facts reduce the
likelihood of getting AIDS. I think using condoms
and getting tested are more likely to do that.

for a random couple giving it from one to another without first getting tested. In fact, we are starting to talk about probabilities that are in the same ballpark as the failure rate of the test.

You seem to be relying on the power of mathematics
more than I'm willing to.

Finally, only about 200 people die each year in MA from AIDS. The number is way down from where it used to be. The likelihood that any of our lists (assuming we are under the age of 45) would even have more than 10 names or be growing is really low unless we hung out in the right circles of friends that are at higher risk than the average population.

Make your own list if you are gay, then ask your gay
friends how many are on their lists.

You would also do more of a service to tell people to keep a list of friends killed in motor vehicle accidents and tell them not to get behind the wheel until they always blew into a breathalyzer or took a defensive driving course.

No disagreement about drunk driving, text driving,
or other variations on inattention while behind the
wheel of a vehicle.

Finally, only about 200 people die each year in MA from AIDS. The number is way down from where it used to be. The likelihood that any of our lists (assuming we are under the age of 45) would even have more than 10 names or be growing is really low unless we hung out in the right circles of friends that are at higher risk than the average population.

It seems to me that older people would have
a longer list.

Make your own list if you are gay, then ask your gay
friends how many are on their lists.

Is Make your own list if you are gay, then ask your gay friends how many are on their lists. punctuated the way intended?...

My bad. I assumed you would be sharp enough able to see
the multiple meanings in those words.